/ 


Number  33  Price,  20  cents 


^  Reprint  and  Circular  Series 

OF  THE 

National  Research 
Council 


INFORMATIONAL  NEEDS  IN  SCIENCE 
AND  technology 

By  Charles  L.  Reese 
Chemical  Director,  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Company 


NOV  i;? 


LIBRARY 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  American  Chemical  Society, 
Birmingham,  Alabama,  April  3,  1922. 

Published  in  Journal  of  Industrial  and  Engineering  Chemistry, 
AT;)v    lO-;^^   Vol    M    \'n   .">.  page  304. 


Announcement  Concerning  Publications 

of  the 

National  Research  Council 


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REPRINT  AND  CIRCULAR  SERIES 

OF  THE 

National  Research  Council 

NUMBER  33 

Informational  Needs  in  Science  and 
Technology 

By  Charles  L.  Reese 

THERE  is  a  common  saying  that  "Knowledge  is  Power." 
Information  and  knowledge  are  so  closely  related  that  it 
might  be  said  that  information  is  power,  and  coordinated 
information  is  power  plus.  The  rapid  rate  at  which  knowledge 
has  been  and  is  being  accumulated,  particularly  in  science  and 
technology,  is  brought  out  very  forcibly  by  the  Polish  engineer 
Korzybski  in  his  remarkable  book,  "Manhood  of  Humanity," 
and  it  seems  that  extraordinary  steps  must  be  taken  to  coordi- 
nate and  correlate  information  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it 
available  to  all  capable  of  using  it  throughout  the  world. 

Efficiency  in  research  and  in  the  application  of  its  results  is 
significantly  conditioned  by  command  of  information.  To 
the  individual,  nation,  or  race  which  most  skilfully,  thoroughly, 
and  wisely  masters  and  uses  the  accumulated  knowledge  of 
mankind  comes  supremacy  in  industry,  if  not  also  in  science, 
politics,  and  art.  Creators  of  knowledge  through  the  appli- 
cation of  scientific  method  to  Nature  are  prone  to  belittle  or 
to  ignore  the  devices  by  which  information  is  conserved,  rendered 
conveniently  accessible,  and  disseminated.  Rather  it  becomes 
us  to  inquire  whether  by  giving  systematic  attention  to  means 
of  marshaling  and  using  what  has  been  discovered,  invented, 
felt,  imagined,  constructed,  we  may  not  render  uniquely  valuable 
service  to  civilization. 

Time  was  when  knowledge  was  transmitted  from  man  to  man 
or  generation  to  generation  either  orally  or  by  rude  products 
of  human  labor.  Then  came  written  language  and,  finally, 
printing,  libraries,  and  the  construction  of  such  keys  to  knowl- 
edge as  catalogs,  indexes,  handbooks,  encyclopedias.  All  the 
while  the  rate  of  accession  to  information  has  increased  rapidly, 
although  irregularly.  Man  has  become  increasingly  a  thinking 
animal  with  remarkable  development  of  curiosity,  resource- 
fulness, originality,  breadth  of  interest  and  view,  foresight, 
disinterestedness,  and  sympathy.  With  multitudes  of  indi- 
viduals  and    generations    feverishly    active,    often    progressive, 

(1) 


all  striving  to  live  more  comfortably,  happily,  usefully  and  longer, 
and  to  command  Nature  more  successfully  to  these  ends,  what 
are  the  chances  that  my  present  idea,  thought,  or  plan  is  new — 
shall  we  say  one  in  a  million?  It  requires  but  scant  attention 
to  the  matter  to  convince  us  that  the  eflBciency  of  our  use  of  the 
products  of  human  thought  and  of  its  records  is  astoundingly 
low.  We  chemists  are  continuously  repeating  not  only  mental 
processes  but,  as  well,  the  experimental  procedures  of  our  pred- 
ecessors in  research.  Within  limits  this  duplication  of  labor 
is  desirable  and  profitable,  but  how  far  we  fall  short  of  utilizing 
as  we  should  the  constructive  efforts  of  those  unnumbered 
generations  of  men  and  women  whose  lives  prepared  the  way 
for  ours. 

The  progress  of  discovery  and  invention  has  nearly  eliminated 
space  as  a  barrier  between  individuals  and  peoples.  Time,  it 
has  been  compressed.  The  output  of  carefully  recorded  infor- 
mation is  to-day  overwhelmingly  large — the  world  is  producing 
millions  of  printed,  typed  and  written  pages  of  records  of  re- 
search, invention,  development,  and  practical  experience,  not  to 
mention  cultural  and  esthetic  creations.  This  amazing  increase 
in  the  quantity  of  human  knowledge  is  accompanied  by  cor- 
responding increase  in  specialization  of  interest,  occupation, 
and  terminology.  Tongues  also  have  multipUed,  and  mental 
patterns,  human  needs,  and  demands  have  become  more 
diverse.  In  general,  as  knowledge  has  increased,  the  devices 
for  handling  it  have  become  less  satisfactory.  Few  needs  are 
now  clearer  or  more  urgent  than  the  construction  of  efficient 
informational  mechanisms  or  keys  to  knowledge.  The  question 
I  present  to  you  is,  "How  may  the  constructive  agencies  in  science 
and  industry  help  to  bring  about  the  designing  and  installation 
of  suitable  informational  mechanisms?"  May  we  not  profit- 
ably bring  our  scientific  method,  habit  of  mind,  purpose,  and 
need  to  bear  on  this  important  problem  with  a  view  to  devising 
informational  master-keys  which  shall  render  human  knowledge 
many  times  more  available  and,  therefore,  more  valuable? 

It  is  obvious  that  knowledge,  even  in  a  relatively  narrow  field, 
has  outgrown  the  capacity  of  most  individuals.  However  en- 
cyclopedic we  may  be  by  nature  or  training,  we  can  master  only 
certain  fragments  of  the  information  which  mankind  has  accu- 
mulated. It  is  conceivable,  however,  that  we  should  be  able 
to  construct  an  informational  system  which  would  enable  every 
reasonably  intelligent  and  fairly  well-educated  person  to  obtain 
the  essential  information  about  a  given  subject  when  needed. 
Why  should  we  not  handle  the  packing,  storage,  shipping,  and 
distribution  of  knowledge  as  efficiently  as  we  manage  commercial 
production?  We  have  gradually  devised  a  system  of  exchange, 
national  and  international,  which  with  reasonable  satisfactori- 
ness  enables  us  to  enjoy  the  products  of  others'  skill  and  industry. 
Such  systems  are  imperfect,  but  by  comparison  with  present 
modes  of  preserving  information  and  rendering  it  accessible  to 
posterity,  they  are  highly  advanced. 

Largely  because  knowledge  is  discontinuous  and  relatively 

(2) 


unavailable,  history  repeats  itself  endlessly  and  tragically.  Ignor- 
ance, it  would  appear,  is  responsible  for  more  catastrophes  and 
racial  setbacks  than  are  carelessness,  selfishness,  and  malicious- 
ness combined.  The  solemn  duty  rests  on  us  to  devise  ade- 
quate ways  and  means  of  carrying  forward  always,  with  con- 
tinuously increasing  accessibility,  the  sum  of  useful  knowledge 
and  experience.  The  fact  that  the  task  has  not  been  done  is 
good  evidence  of  its  difBcultness,  not  of  its  impossibility  or 
its  lack  of  importance. 

Developments  duri.vg  the  War 
The  World  War  at  once  revealed  some  of  the  weaknesses  of 
our  informational  position  and  our  ability  to  remedy  them. 
When  the  tremendous  need  for  munitions  and  men  came  we 
were  plodding  along  self-satisfied  and  generally  oblivious  of  the 
fact  that  we  commanded  relatively  little  information.  Almost 
over  night,  investigators  and  industries  became  aware  that 
knowledge  of  conditions,  discovery,  invention,  production — in  a 
word,  efficiency  of  effort  was  lacking.  Intelligence  bureaus,  in- 
formational departments,  staffs  of  abstractors,  indexers,  compilers, 
and  purveyors  appeared  suddenly  all  over  the  country.  What 
Germany  had  at  hand  in  1914,  because  of  her  superior  foresight 
and  appreciation  of  the  supreme  value  of  systematized  available 
knowledge  and  of  the  indispensablene.ss  of  research,  we  were 
compelled  to  try  to  create  at  high  speed  and  with  feverish  haste. 
It  is  enlightening  to  examine  some  of  our  information-seeking 
activities  in  their  relation  to  our  present  need  and  opportunity. 
COMMERCIAL  ACTIVITIES — My  own  company,  when  it  under- 
took a  number  of  new  lines  of  manufacture,  beginning  during 
the  latter  days  of  the  war,  recognized  the  need  of  more  extensive 
and  more  comprehensive  information  along  these  lines.  An 
Intelligence  Division  was  therefore  organized,  charged  with  the 
collection,  integration,  and  dissemination  of  technical  information 
on  the  subjects  in  which  we  were  interested.  At  the  time  of 
its  maximum  activity  this  Division  was  spending  $80,000  per 
year  for  salaries  alone,  and  comprised  a  personnel  of  thirty-five 
men  and  women. 

A  classified  index  of  the  dye  patents  of  the  United  States  was 
prepared ;  foundations  were  laid  for  a  general  information  catalog, 
which,  while  no  longer  being  added  to  at  the  present  time,  is 
still  a  valuable  library  tool;  an  information  index  of  our  research 
reports  was  started  and  is  just  being  completed;  a  librar>'  was 
organized,  etc.  While  many  of  the  activities  of  the  Division 
probably  were  of  interest  only  to  the  du  Pont  Company,  it  is 
unquestionably  true  that  some  of  the  activities  could  better 
have  been  carried  on  by  some  organization  like  the  Research 
Information  Service  of  the  National  Research  Council,  and  the 
results  would  then  have  been  available  to  the  country  at  large. 
For  more  than  five  years  the  Chemical  Catalog  Company 
has  conducted  an  information  bureau  for  the  benefit  of  chemical 
industn.'  and  its  personnel.  Informational  demands  increased 
so  considerably  that  it  was  found  desirable  in  1921  to  place  this 
bureau  on  a  charge  basis.     A  fee  of  $25  per  year  is  now  charged 

(3) 


to  firms  or  individuals  who  wish  to  command  the  service.  This 
also,  it  should  be  noted,  is  a  highly  specialized  service  limited  to 
chemical  technology  and  making  no  special  provision  for  informa- 
tion concerning  research. 

The  National  Industrial  Conference  Board,  organized  and 
maintained  by  the  industries  of  the  country,  is  one  of  the  most 
active  and  efficient  intelligence  agencies  in  the  country.  Their 
activities  are  mostly  along  industrial,  social,  and  economic  lines, 
and  they  have  made  since  1917  forty-five  research  reports  and 
twenty  special  reports  as  a  result  of  studies  on  such  subjects 
as  changes  in  cost  of  living,  strikes,  works  councils,  profit  sharing, 
health  service  in  industry,  taxes,  hours  of  labor,  and  metric 
versus  English  system  of  weights  and  measures.  All  of  these 
are  the  results  of  the  collection  of  statistics  and  the  presenta- 
tion of  facts. 

These  instances  of  informational  activities  directed  toward 
increasing  the  availability  of  commercially  valuable  information 
are  typical  of  what  has  been  achieved  or  attempted  for  various 
industries  throughout  the  United  States  since  1917.  Many  of 
the  informational  bureaus  which  sprang  up  by  reason  of  war 
needs  have  been  abandoned  because  of  economic  pressure. 
Others  are  struggling  to  achieve  self-support  and  profit.  The 
indications  are  clear,  however,  that  a  general  informational 
clearing  house  should  be  an  endowed  public  service  organization, 
independent  alike  of  the  need  of  self-support  and  of  gain. 

GOVERNMENTAL  WORK — Of  governmental  informational  activi- 
ties certain  notable  instances  should  be  mentioned.  The  Food 
Administration  perfected  a  staff  and  statistical  machinery 
which  provided  it  with  unprecedentedly  complete  intelligence 
concerning  food  production,  distribution,  consmnption,  waste, 
and  prices.  The  statistical  department  of  the  Food  Adminis- 
tration, as  was  generally  recognized  during  the  war  and  has 
since  been  made  clear  by  its  reports,  functioned  with  marvelous 
efficiency  as  an  intelligence  agency. 

With  a  view  to  enabling  the  Federal  Government  to  command 
such  available  information  as  was  essential  for  wise  action,  a 
central  bureau  for  planning  and  statistics  was  organized  and, 
at  the  height  of  the  need,  operated  for  several  months.  But 
as  soon  as  the  need  began  to  diminish  this  admirable  idea  and 
its  initial  expression  were  abandoned.  Thus  was  once  more 
exemplified  the  general  inability  to  appreciate  the  importance 
of  providing  organization  and  apparatus  to  make  human  knowl- 
edge readily  available. 

In  the  Army  and  the  Navy,  intelligence  services,  with  the 
advent  of  war,  emerged  from  dark  corners  and  spread  knowledge- 
seeking  tentacles  throughout  the  world.  Rapidly  these  military 
bureaus  evolved  systems  of  gathering,  classifying,  and  distribut- 
ing information  of  essential  importance  to  a  nation  at  war. 
For  a  time  the  military  departments  were  immersed  in  positive 
and  negative  intelligence,  much  of  which  doubtless  was  generally 
available  to  enemies  as  well  as  allies.  Probably  it  will  require 
years  for  these  protective  and  defensive  intelligence  services  to 

(4) 


sink  again  into  that  oblivion  which  ignorance  of  world  conditions 
tends  to  encourage.  Seemingly,  the  more  ignorant  a  nation, 
the  safer  it  feels;  and  certainly  the  more  ignorant  an  individual 
the  less  he  appreciates  the  possible  values  of  knowledge  and  of 
instrumentalities  for  commanding  it. 

NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL — Last,  bccausc  it  is  first  in 
our  interest  as  investigators,  mention  may  be  made  of  the  in- 
formational work  of  the  National  Research  Council.  This  was 
begun  while  the  Council  served  as  the  Department  of  Science 
and  Research  of  the  National  Council  for  Defense.  At  first 
there  was  organized  a  Research  Information  Committee  with 
headquarters  in  Washington,  and  offices  in  London,  Paris,  and 
Rome.  The  principal  and  important  function  of  this  committee 
was  to  gather  information  about  current  research  of  military 
significance  and  to  distribute  reports  of  such  work  to  appropriate 
military  and  civilian  agencies.  The  committee  served,  through 
its  staff  of  scientific  directors  or  attaches,  primarily  as  an  informa- 
tion gathering  and  disseminating  agency.  Its  success  led  to 
subsequent  reorganization  as  the  Research  Information  Service, 
concerning  which  more  will  be  said  later. 

The  various  informational  activities  which  have  been  selected 
as  examples  of  types  are  all  of  them  indicative  of  the  need  and 
opportunity  which,  compelling  during  the  Great  War,  are  always 
with  us  and  are  far  more  worthy  of  serious  study  and  effort  than 
is  generally  reahzed. 

The  World  Situation 

It  has  already  been  hinted  that  there  was  rare  appreciation 
of  the  importance  of  human  knowledge  during  the  war  and  that 
we  already  are  tending  to  lose  this  appreciation.  With  this 
observation  in  mind,  it  may  prove  worth  while  to  make  a  hasty 
survey  of  the  world  situation. 

GERMANY — Germany  has  the  instrumentality  for  command- 
ing scientific  and  technological  information  and  for  stimulation 
and  guidance  of  research  effort  which  all  but  gave  her  victory. 
This  instrumentality,  whose  principal  locus  is  Grosslichterfelde, 
includes  the  great  national  laboratories  and  the  informational 
bureau  which  has  quite  naturally,  but  by  no  means  accidentally, 
grown  up  in  connection  with  "das  konigliche  Materialprufung- 
samt."  The  purpose  of  this  institution,  which  was  organized 
at  Charlottenburg  in  1871  and  in  1904  moved  to  its  present  site, 
is  to  place  at  the  service  of  the  German  people  a  staff  of  thoroughly 
competent  specialists,  armed  with  all  technical  facilities  and 
records  of  human  progress.  This  staff  holds  itself  at  the  command 
of  investigators,  inventors,  manufacturers,  technologists,  agri- 
culturists, to  assist  in  the  solution  of  their  practical  problems 
and  to  help  them  to  command  the  accumulated  knowledge  and 
progress  of  the  whole  world.  This  institution  is  said  to  have 
claimed  to  be  able  to  answer  80  per  cent  of  the  problems  put  up 
to  them  supposedly  demanding  experimental  research. 

We  may  not  reasonably  flatter  ourselves  with  the  thought 
that  we  are  exceptionally  advanced  in  our  consideration  of  in- 

(5) 


formational  needs  and  opportunities,  for  the  chances  are  that  in 
Germany,  Japan,  and  probably  other  countries  as  well,  plans 
have  already  been  formulated,  and  possibly  are  well  advanced 
toward  practical  expression,  for  the  effective  command  of  world 
informational  resources  in  the  interest  of  national  development 
and  prosperity.  But  whatever  we  do  toward  improving  our 
informational  resources,  we  can  least  of  all  afford  to  forget  that 
as  a  nation  we  are  backward  in  supporting,  dignifying,  and  so 
far  recognizing  the  values  of  constructive  work  that  it  necessarily 
commands  the  respect,  attention,  and  confidence  of  our  people, 
and  is  regarded  as  essential  to  human  progress. 

Yet,  Germany  does  not  stand  alone  in  appreciation  of  informa- 
tional need  or  in  determined  effort  to  meet  it.  England,  years 
ago,  was  chief  mover  and  responsible  agency  in  the  organization 
of  the  International  Catalog  of  Scientific  Literature,  an  ambitious 
project  which  ultimately  failed  because  it  was  modeled  too  closely 
after  the  librarian's  ideal  of  an  index  to  knowledge.  The  Catalog, 
although  undeniably  useful  as  a  list  of  all  scientific  publications, 
did  not  prove  satisfactory  to  investigators  and  consequently 
failed  to  command  their  support.  Its  fate  points  a  lesson  which 
it  is  hoped  we  may  heed,  namely,  that  a  mere  catalog  of  titles 
is  an  entirely  inadequate  key  to  human  knowledge.  It  demands 
supplementation,  transformation,  or  both. 

BELGIUM — Belgium  also  has  witnessed  an  attempt  to  list 
and  partly  to  summarize  all  published  documents.  In  effect, 
this  amounts  to  the  construction  of  a  classified  card  catalog  to 
which  one  might  turn  with  reasonable  expectation  of  getting 
useful  references  or  suggestions  concerning  almost  any  topic 
of  human  interest.  This  project  also  has  suffered  the  ills  of 
war  and  is  moribimd.  We  well  may  ask  whether  the  plan  was 
wisely  conceived  and  whether,  however  thoroughly  it  may  be 
carried  out,  it  can  reasonably  be  expected  to  meet  our  principal 
informational  needs. 

As  has  already  been  indicated,  America,  although  full  of  in- 
formational agencies — industrial,  scientific,  political — has  no 
general  informational  clearing  house  for  all  interests.  Special 
informational  bureaus  or  intelligence  services  come  and  go  so 
rapidly  that  a  directory  cannot  be  kept  to  date.  Washington 
is  crowded  with  invaluable  sources  of  information  covering  the 
entire  range  of  human  interests  and  activities.  There  are  scores 
of  federal  offices,  bureaus,  divisions,  departrrients  which  command 
useful  information;  but  there  is  no  individual  and  no  bureau 
which  serves  as  guide  or  directory.  Consequently,  the  search 
for  information  in  the  great  national  center  of  intelligence  is 
likely  to  prove  baffling,  discouraging,  and,  at  worst,  irritating. 
What  could  readily  be  done  for  informational  Washington  by 
the  creation  of  a  central  clearing  house,  what  indeed  already  has 
been  attempted  for  quite  another  purpose  by  the  Bureau  of 
Efficiency,  certainly  should  be  done  at  once  and  with  the  greatest 
human  foresight  and  skill  for  our  entire  country,  for  the  world, 
because  the  isolated  or  independent  nation  is  a  fiction,  and  for 
the  whole  of  human  knowledge,  historical  as  well  as  current. 

(6) 


Nowhere  in  the  world,  so  far  as  present  information  indicates, 
is  there  in  plan  or  operation  an  informational  clearing  house 
conceived  on  a  large  scale  with  intent  to  render  the  whole  range 
of  human  information  increasingly  accessible  and  useful.  It 
is  precisely  such  an  informational  organization  that  our  times, 
our  industries,  our  investigators,  our  public  institutions,  our 
public  servants,  and  our  people  need.  The  realization  of  need 
in  most  quarters  is  not  yet  compelling,  but  in  others  it  is  def- 
initely sensed  and  it  is  believed  that  the  time  is  ripe  boldly  to 
extend  the  plans  of  the  Research  Information  Service  of  the 
National  Research  Council. 

Research  Information  Service,   National  Research 
Council 

From  the  Research  Council's  committee  on  research  informa- 
tion, following  the  Armistice,  was  organized  a  division  of  the 
permanent  Council  called  the  "Research  Information  Service." 
It  was  my  pleasure  and  responsibility  to  assist  in  planning, 
organizing,  and  furthering  this  informational  agency.  The 
Service  has  now  been  available  for  three  years.  During  the 
first  two  years  attention  was  centered  on  the  study  of  the  informa- 
tional situation,  the  formulation  of  plans,  and  the  creation  of 
fundamental  informational  tools.  From  three  years  of  effort 
to  discover,  understand,  and  satisfy  informational  demands, 
certain  principles  of  organization  and  policy  have  appeared. 
These  have  been  carefully  considered  by  an  organizing  com- 
mittee which  is  representative  of  research  interests  and  of  the 
principal  industries  and  types  of  informational  agency  of  the 
country.  Foremost  among  the  principles  agreed  upon  by  this 
committee  on  organization  are  the  following: 

1 — The  desirability  of  developing  initially  a  general  clearing 
house  for  scientific  and  technological  information  rather  than 
a  mere  storehouse  or  depository  of  knowledge. 

2 — The  conduct  of  a  free  informational  service  for  the  pro- 
motion of  research,  useful  applications  of  its  results  and  the 
supplying  or  disseminating  of  knowledge  necessary  for  or  bene- 
ficial to  human  welfare  and  progress.  It  is  recognized  by  the 
committee  that  there  is  a  practical  limit  to  the  possibility  of 
free  ser\'ice  beyond  which  charge  sufTicient  to  cover  the  cost  of 
service  should  be  made. 

3 — The  encouragement  and  fostering  of  a  miscellaneous  re- 
quest service  initially  limited  to  scientific  and  technological 
knowledge  which  shall  strive  to  supply  reliable  information 
concerning  any  aspect  or  relations  of  research.  Especially  to 
be  mentioned  in  this  connection  is  information  concerning  re- 
search problems,  projects,  methods,  processes,  results,  current 
work,  laboratories,  equipment,  apparatus,  funds,  and  other 
means  of  support,  persons  engaged  in  constructive  or  creative 
work,  publications,  and  bibliographies. 

4 — The  primary  task  of  the  special  stafT  of  the  Research  In- 
formation Service  is  set  forth  as  the  designing  and  construction 
of  informational  keys,  instruments  or  tools  essential  to  the 
efficient  functioning  of  a  clearing  house  for  human  knowledge. 
The  final  purpose  in  endeavoring  to  create  informational  instru- 
ments is  the  development  of  a  complete  coordinated  machinery 
for  gathering,  classifying,  locating  when  needed,  and  disseminat- 
ing trustworthy  information. 

(7) 


5 — Utilization  by  the  Service  of  correspondence,  informational 
publications,  and  publicity  as  ways  of  meeting  the  informational 
needs  of  organizations  and  individuals,  and  of  educating  the 
public  to  appreciation  of  the  possible  values  of  a  carefully  planned 
and  efficiently  conducted  informational  clearing  house. 

The  group  of  men,  among  whom  appear  several  of  our  chemical 
colleagues,  which  has  been  chiefly  responsible  for  the  launching 
and  development  of  this  project  naturally  has  come  to  look 
upon  it  as  America's  most  ambitious,  most  thoughtful,  and 
most  promising  attempt  to  be  useful  in  a  large  way  and  perma- 
nently in  connection  with  the  handling  of  the  varied  and  multi- 
tudinous products  of  human  thought  and  ingenuity.  Dr.  James 
R.  Angell,  first  chairman  of  the  post  bellum  Research  Council, 
once  characterized  the  painstaking,  albeit  somewhat  discourag- 
ing, labors  of  the  Research  Information  Service  Committee  as 
primarily  an  "investment  in  brains."  He  believed  firmly  in 
the  wisdom  of  this  investment  and  in  the  supreme  importance 
of  the  Council's  informational  opportunity. 

To  repeat,  even  casual  observation  serves  to  indicate  the 
scattered  and  special  character  of  sources  of  knowledge  and 
the  extreme  improbability  that  a  needy  individual  will  happen 
upon  the  right  source.  It  is  only  by  happy  accident  that  one 
locates  satisfactory  information  outside  the  field  of  his  special 
interest  and  activity.  There  is  neither  correlation  nor  coordi- 
nation; there  is  not  even  a  central  medium  of  communication 
to  place  those  who  desire  information  in  touch  with  those  who 
have  it.  It  is  proposed,  therefore,  to  make  the  Research  In- 
formation Service  of  the  National  Research  Council  a  great 
clearing  house  for  informational  requests  and  thus  to  increase 
the  availability  and  value  of  existing  sources  and  to  supplement 
them  as  necessary.  The  Service  will  not  strive  for  encyclopedic 
knowledge,  save  of  sources,  but  undoubtedly  its  files  will  gradually 
acquire  value.  Ultimately  it  may  become  a  great  informational 
center,  as  well  as  clearing  house. 

Although  at  present  the  Service  is  rather  strictly  limiting  its 
activities  to  the  natural  sciences  and  their  practical  applications 
in  industry  and  engineering,  it  is  proposed  to  direct  its  develop- 
ment along  those  lines  which  promise  to  promote  both  increase 
of  human  knowledge  through  constructive  effort  and  improved 
availability  of  knowledge  already  achieved.  Once  suitable 
clearing-house  machinery  has  been  designed,  constructed,  and 
perfected,  there  is  no  obvious  reason  why  the  plan  which  has 
been  outlined  should  not  be  applied  to  the  entirety  of  human 
knowledge. 

Although  it  is  commonly  believed  that  the  important  prod- 
ucts of  human  skill  and  labor  are  satisfactorily  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation  it  is  important  to  note  that  this 
is  not  true  of  those  products  of  mental  labor  which  gain  expres- 
sion merely  in  written  language.  Useful  inventions,  commer- 
cially developed,  are  not  likely  to  be  lost  except  by  replacement, 
but  verbal  descriptions  of  discoveries  or  inventions  which  have 
not  achieved  material  expression  are  very  likely  to  become 
buried  in  our  great  informational  storehouse,  our  libraries.     In 

(8) 


the  light  of  this  condition,  it  has  seemed  peculiarly  important 
to  develop  an  informational  service  to  supplement  the  library. 
This  evidently  means  new  types  of  keys  to  knowledge.  The 
staff  of  the  Information  Service  has  planned  and  begun  to  de- 
velop files  for  research  personnel,  problems,  results,  laboratories, 
methods,  procedures,  experimental  equipment,  and  bibliogra- 
phies. It  is  surprisingly  easy  in  this  kind  of  venture  to  design 
special  equipment  which  cannot  be  operated  successfully  be- 
cause of  its  needless  complexity,  size,  or  costliness.  The  tendency 
is  always  toward  specialization  and  against  the  creation  of  effi- 
cient clearing-house  machinery. 

It  is  now  pretty  generally  recognized  that  the  first  and  most 
important  step  toward  increased  availability  of  information 
should  be  the  preparation  of  reliable  objective,  analytical  ab- 
stracts of  literature,  and  the  construction  of  detailed  subject 
indexes.  If  the  scientific  and  technological  literature  of  the 
world  were  regularly  and  systematically  abstracted  and  listed, 
and  if  all  this  condensed  information  were  available  in  the  Re- 
search Information  Service,  it  is  reasonable  to  anticipate  that 
from  70  to  90  per  cent  of  all  requests  could  be  answered  directly 
and  with  reasonable  satisfactoriness  from  this  single  master- 
key.  Were  this  proposed  key  to  published  materials  supple- 
mented by  files  of  records  concerning  current  research,  scientific 
and  technological  workers,  laboratories — their  construction, 
equipment,  etc.,  it  is  certain  that  many  more  requests  could 
be  successfully  answered. 

The  Service  has  imdertaken  to  develop,  as  its  fundamental 
tools,  first,  a  list  of  informational  sources  including  individuals 
as  well  as  organizations,  specialists  as  well  as  informational 
bureaus;  second,  it  is  building  up  a  library  of  source  books  which 
it  is  hoped  may  ultimately  become  an  invaluable  master-key 
to  published  information.  Scarcely  less  important  than  these 
two  types  of  key  for  clearing  house  use  is  the  research  personnel 
file  which  is  counted  upon  to  supply  reliable  information  con- 
cerning all  research  workers,  their  resources  for  research,  their 
interests,  and  their  principal  lines  of  activity.  This  file  already 
contains  nearly  14,000  names  and  is  being  mechanized  by  the 
use  of  the  Findex  system  for  convenience  and  accuracy  of  sorting. 
It  is  cited  merely  as  an  example  of  a  type  of  master-key  which, 
if  skilfully  planned  and  efficiently  developed,  an  informational 
clearing  house  is  sure  to  find  entirely  essential  and  of  steadily 
increasing  value. 

As  is  true  in  many  other  directions,  the  best  way  to  appreciate 
the  problems  of  an  information  service,  its  need,  and  the  value 
of  devices  for  meeting  tbem,  is  to  try  to  use  the  Service  and  to 
follow  as  closely  as  may  be  the  functioning  of  the  clearing-house 
mechanisms  in  supplying  information. 

American  chemists  are  far  better  situated  informationally 
than  are  most  other  groups  of  scientists  or  technologists.  Simi- 
larly, the  chemical  industries  have  been  conspicuously  more 
progressive  in  their  efforts  to  command  .scientific  and  technologi- 
cal   information    than    have    other    commercial    interests.     To 

(9.) 


what  extent  this  is  due  to  the  necessity  created  by  German 
initiative  and  resourcefulness  is  difficult  to  determine,  but  cer- 
tainly the  German  influence  has  been  considerable.  And  with 
all  its  provisions  for  marshaling  and  promptly  commanding 
pertinent  information,  it  is  clear  that  American  chemistry  is 
not  in  the  strongest  possible  position  and  that  it  still  nmst  reckon 
with  species  of  ignorance  and  forms  of  competition  which  are 
as  inimical  to  national  welfare  as  they  are  to  professional  prog- 
ress. It  is  entirely  fair  to  ask,  "Would  not  systematic,  sus- 
tained, intelligent  study  of  informational  needs  and  values  be 
likely  to  result  in  great  improvement  for  chemistry?"  My 
own  observations  and  experience  in  connection  with  our  Chem- 
ical  Intelligence   Department   indicate   an   affirmative   reply. 

Chemistry  and  chemists,  as  well  as  those  who  as  laymen  seek 
chemical  information,  undoubtedly  can  profit  greatly  by  a  wisely 
planned  and  efficiently  conducted  general  informational  clearing 
house.  We  especially  need  such  a  service  to  facilitate  contacts 
with  related  fields  of  research  and  with  discoveries,  inventions, 
and  developments  which,  although  not  chemical,  have  signifi- 
cance for  our  special  interests.  We  need  such  a  general  clearing 
house  also  to  increase  our  profitable  contacts  with  the  consuming 
public.  We  need  it  to  supplement  our  own  keys  to  chemical 
literature,  our  abstracts,  indexes,  compilations  of  information, 
and  even  our  special  informational  agencies,  such  as  the  Chem- 
ical Catalog  Company,  for  through  the  sort  of  national  informa- 
tional clearing  house  which  the  Research  Council  is  undertaking 
to  create  our  special  informational  aids  in  chemistry  will  be  made 
available  to  untold  millions  of  scientists,  industrialists,  and  con- 
sumers of  chemical  products. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that  ultimately  an  international 
service  of  this  character  be  established  with  not  a  single  locus, 
but  with  branches  in  most  of  the  important  countries,  containing 
on  file  in  each  all  of  the  material  collected,  so  that  in  case  of  a 
cataclysm  such  as  has  befallen  Russia  and  which  might  have 
befallen  all  of  Europe  if  the  World  War  had  lasted  much  longer, 
it  would  not  result  in  the  loss  to  the  world  of  a  large  part  of  her 
wealth  of  information.  Such  an  arrangement  if  it  were  possible 
would  require  governmental  cooperation  but  would  result  in  a 
tremendous  saving  of  eflfort  and  be  all-embracing. 

The  Research  Information  Service  of  the  National  Research 
Council  is  a  public  service  agency.  It  is  ours  to  make  or  to  mar, 
to  use  or  neglect.  It  urgently  invites  our  cooperation  and  freely 
offers  its  aid  to  us  individually  and  collectively.  We  cannot 
afford  to  do  less  than  interest  ourselves  intelligently  in  this 
difficult  undertaking  whose  possibilities  of  usefulness  are  almost 
limitless  and  to  endeavor  to  aid  in  so  directing  its  further  de- 
velopment that  it  may  command  our  support  increasingly. 

Before  closing  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  valuable  results 
already  accomplished  by  the  Research  Information  Service  of 
the  National  Research  Council,  due  to  the  untiring  and  invaluable 
efforts  of  Chairman  Robert  M.  Yerkes,  at  whose  suggestion 
this  paper  was  prepared. 

(10) 


Bulletin  of  the  National  Research  Council 

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Volimie  2 

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